The Cardboard Check

The Cardboard Check

"And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in
all things at all times....you will abound in every good work."
II Corinthians 9:8

After waiting many years, I was finally presented yesterday with one of those oversized cardboard checks, complete with smiling faces and a photographer snapping pictures to capture the event. If you're thinking the lottery and a check with lots of zeros on the end, it was bigger than that. Maybe you pictured a check being presented to the winner of a golf tournament (in which case, you've obviously never golfed with me before) but, once again, it was bigger than that. Let me explain.

In the fall, I was asked to share some thoughts on the mission field and the needs that exist in other countries with a newly formed middle school group that wanted to support missions. I shared with the kids the heartbreak of seeing little children on the streets of Manila knocking on the windows of cars begging for change and about the incredibly poor living conditions of so many in third world nations. In response, this little group, composed of 6th, 7th, and 8th graders, started to collect pennies, thousands of pennies, to help children in need in other countries.

The cardboard check presented to me yesterday, for me to take to the Philippines when I minister there next month, was for $130.21, collected by the Mission Warriors over the last three months. The skeptic might say "What is that in a nation with such poverty and need?" but I remember a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish who gave what he had and the result was thousands of hungry people being fed. And I seem to recall the story of a teenager stepping out of a line of soldiers, armed with only a slingshot, but being used by God to bring deliverance and freedom to a nation.

It is far more than a trite saying that "we may not be able to do everything, but we can do something". God is looking for those who will be touched, and can sympathize, with the hurts and weaknesses of others. We have to be able, as this small group of middle school students demonstrated, to see beyond the needs and wants in our own lives. But that is only half the equation. John wrote:

"Dear children, let us not love with words
and tongue but with actions and in truth"

The awesome side of this cardboard check is that it represents love in action, a group of children doing what they could to help others in need. Don't ever let the enemy convince you that you have nothing to offer God and that you can't make a difference. Let the example of this cardboard check inspire each of us to use what we have, gifts, talents, and resources, no matter how small or how large, to demonstrate the love of God and to help others in need.

God Bless,
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Benchmarks

Benchmarks

"Hold to the standard of sound words that you have heard from
me and do so with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus."
II Timothy 1:13

In the field of education, the word benchmark is tossed around quite often, usually referring to a standard of achievement that must be attained in the subject matter being taught. In Michigan, the benchmarks for various subjects, from Science and Math to History and English, have been established by the State Department of Education to help ensure that individual schools "measure up" in their practices and their performance.

But if benchmarks are to be found anywhere, shouldn't it be in the church and in the lives of believers. Benchmarks, standards of excellence, standards to live by and to measure up to, are found throughout the Bible but it's time for a re-evaluation to make sure that those standards are still in place and being adhered to:

* Forgiveness - We have been called to forgive as we have been forgiven. For a Christian to hold on to anything that another has done is just plain wrong. The benchmark is "forgive and forget". The standard is to understand that we all are sinners saved by grace, that we all have issues we are dealing with, and that we are all in need of forgiveness. The prison of unforgiveness, for the one who refuses to forgive another, is somewhere none of us want to be found.

* Holiness - Christians are supposed to be different! Believers are to be different in the way they speak, in the choices they make, in the way they conduct themselves in business, in what they allow in their homes, and in the honesty and integrity with which they conduct their lives. Keeping our word should be a benchmark for others to follow, the excellence of our work ethic should be a standard against which others are measured, and our speech should be the criterion by which sound words are judged.

* Love - The Bible establishes clear benchmarks for how we are to treat others with I Corinthians 13 teaching us that "love is patient, loves does not envy, it is not rude, it is not easily angered, love never gives up on others, and keeps no record of wrongs". If every believer lived up to just those six benchmarks, think of the impact we would have on those around us. We wouldn't just talk about being different, we would live it and display it to the world.

Let's each take the tough step of seeking to discover the benchmarks that the Lord is desiring us to live by, writing them down so we can purposefully live up to them, and making them the measuring line by which we judge ourselves. The goal is excellence; let's use the benchmarks God has given us in His Word to get there!

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

Glorify

Glorify

"So that with one heart and mouth you may glorify
the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."
Romans 15:6

One of the definitions that the Net Bible gives to the word glorify is "to cause the dignity and worth of some person to become manifest and acknowledged." We glorify God not just by the words we speak or the songs we sing in church but, as the Message Bible adds to Romans 15:6, by our very lives. An example is seen in John 17:4 where Jesus said:

"I glorified you on earth by completing the work you gave me to do."

What brought this thought of glorifying the Lord by the way we live to my mind was the attempted Christmas Day terrorist attack on the Northwest Airlines plane that was landing in Detroit. The interview with the father of the accused man revealed a father who was disgraced, embarassed and dishonored by the actions of his son. The father, a prominent banker in Nigeria, has gone so far as to warn authorities about the direction his son's life has taken.

We would all like to think that we live in a bubble in the sense that our lives are ours to live as we see fit. But the reality is that so many other lives are affected by the way we live and by the choices and decisions we make. You don't have to look very far to see how parent's decisions affect the lives of their children. And as the recent story makes clear, children's decisions can also affect in very dramatic ways the lives of their parents.

As sons and daughters of our heavenly Father, we are in a place where our lives can honor and glorify the Father or do the opposite, dishonoring Him in ways we would never equate to our relationship with God. Whether we like it or not, our words can glorfiy God when we ascribe to Him goodness and greatness, declaring our trust in Him and being thankful for His provision, or they can dishonor Him when we complain about our circumstances or are negative about what lies ahead in our future.

My prayer for each of you in 2010 is that your lives will glorify the Father by the way you live your life. Using the definition we started with, that your words and actions throughout 2010 will cause the dignity and worth of God the Father to be manifest and acknowledged by many others. Let's purpose in our hearts to glorify God in the New Year we are beginning today!

Happy New Year & God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

His Favor

His Favor

"Glory to God in the highest, and on earth
peace to men on whom His favor rests."
Luke 2:14

The gospel of Luke provides us with the most detail about the Christmas story and the events that surrounded the birth of Jesus. It was Luke who recorded that "there was no room for them in the inn" and that the baby would be found "wrapped in swaddling clothes and lying in a manger". His gospel also adds the appearance of an angel to the shepherds and the shepherds visit to Mary, Joseph, and the baby in the manger.

But the aspect of the Christmas story that stood out to me was the message of the company of angels who also appeared to the shepherds praising God and giving Him glory, declaring "peace to men on whom His favor rests". We have so many ways that we describe the birth of Christ and the gift of Christ to the world bringing salvation to all men but in calling it an act of God's favor the angels proverbially hit the nail on the head.

When we think of finding favor with God, or receiving God's favor, most of us talk about jobs, finances, relationships, and blessings of one form or another. God sending an answer to prayer quickly-that is God's favor. God giving us something much better than we deserve-another act of God's favor. Someone blessing us in a time of need we attribute to the favor of God. But think of what the angels looked at as favor.

The ultimate favor of God was the gift of His Son, the offer of hope in a hopeless world and the bringing of light into the deep darkness of a sinful world. Jesus doesn't represent a choice we all get to make, someone we can believe in or follow is we so desire, His coming into the world in the form of a man two thousand years ago was nothing less than the favor of God to a people who were living in slavery and in oppression.

And He is that to us today. Our problems may have changed, cloaked in different forms and names but our need for a Savior remains the same. And as the birth of Christ was certainly the turning point of history, so receiving God's favor in the form of His Son is the turning point of every life that receives Him.

No matter what your circumstances might be, His favor rests upon you for the simple fact that God sent His son into your world to bring you salvation, hope, peace and rest.

Merry Christmas & God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

A Door of Hope

A Door of Hope

"Therefore I will speak tenderly to her....and will
make the valley of Achor a door of hope."
Hosea 2:14-15

So many of the Christmas cards we receive each year carry the message of hope with them. One card I received today said "May God bless your holidays with hope and peace". Another quoted the prayer of Paul in Romans 15:13:

"May the God of Hope fill you with all joy and peace
as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with
hope by the power of the Holy Spirit."

Hope, that positive expectation of good things in the future, that feeling that things will turn out for the best, that looking forward with confidence and trust, is essential to our facing the difficulties and troubles of life. Some put their hope in medicines that they take, others in people who might help to change their situation, but our sure and confident hope is in the Lord our God and in His love and mercy. David wrote in Psalm 39:4

"But now O Lord, upon what am I relying? You are my only hope."

Hosea wrote about God opening a door of hope in the valley of Achor, or valley of trouble. And that is exactly what God does. In those times of trouble in our lives, he comes in and offers hope for the future, opening a door of hope in our lives as we look forward to what lies ahead. Solomon taught that "there is surely a future hope for you, and your hope will not be disappointed". Jeremiah added that God has "plans to prosper you....plans to give you hope and a future", or as another version says "a future filled with hope".

The Christmas cards and their messages of hope are more than a coincidence or the creativity of card makers. The birth of Christ represented the dawning of a new hope for mankind, hope birthed in a manger in Bethlehem to a people living in darkness and oppression, with an indefinite future before them. He came to give us victory over oppression, to reveal His plan of salvation and to unveil the future for His people. The blessings we live in and enjoy are the fruit of the hope born in Bethlehem over 2,000 years ago.

The most important prayer I could pray for you this Christmas season is that God would fill you with an overflowing hope, an expectation of good things ahead in your life as you allow the Savior, the one whose birth changed the course of history, to come into your life in a new and fresh way.


God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

"Not in My House"

"Not in My House"

"And as He taught them, he said, "Is it not written: My
house will be called a house of prayer for all nations."
Mark 11:17

Right after the story in Mark 11 where Jesus cursed the fig tree which had no fruit, we see Him entering the temple and getting really, really angry, overthrowing tables and benches, and then driving people out who were buying and selling and turning God's house into something He never intended. Jesus was so passionate, so consumed about what was going on in God's house, that it makes you wonder if there's anything going on in the church today that would equally upset Him.

If we look at what was mattered most to Jesus, it might give us some clues:

* First of all, Jesus did not take kindly to hypocrites. A whole chapter of "woes" is devoted to those religious people who said one thing, claimed a certain spiritual state, but did another. If you are in the church but the example of your life would turn others away from Christ, you would have been on His hit list. Our lives are to radiate love, thankfulness, joy and mercy; anything less will have a negative effect on those we are hoping to see drawn to the Lord.

* Jesus cared about the poor, the lonely, the sick and the hurting. It is incredible to me that just before Jesus headed off to the last supper and the final hours of His life, He gave the teaching on "I was in prison and you visited me, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, and I was hungry and you fed me". At a time when most of us would be focused on ourselves, He gave a powerful teaching on caring for others. If people are coming to church with needs, lonely, hurting and going without, and leaving with those same needs, we
can be sure that Jesus would have been upset.

* Jesus believed in second chances. The woman caught in the act of adultery was told to "go and sin no more", after Jesus had fended off the would-be stone throwers. Peter went from being someone who denied the Lord repeatedly to the leader of the early church and their spokesman on the day of Pentecost. Another was Zacchaeus, the tax collector, taken from a life of cheating and greed, to one who gave half his possessions to the poor. Now that is a turnaround! I wouldn't
want to be the one who wrote any of these off - I don't think it would have sat too well with the Lord. He majors on restoration (remember the prodigal son) and He expects us to too.

It is safe to say that Jesus cares intensely about what goes on in His church, the values that are taught, the Christ-likeness that is practiced, and especially the way people are treated. We, as Christians, as literally little-Christs, are to model forgiveness and love, mercy and acceptance, faith and faithfulness. Let it be said that each of our churches are places that the Lord would be pleased to send the needy to, like spiritual hospitals, to be ministered to and cared for in the love of Christ.

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church

A Fresh Perspective

A Fresh Perspective

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all
circumstances for this is God's will for you in Christ."
I Thessalonians 5:16-18

When I received the news Wednesday that my transmission was shot and needed rebuilding, with the accompanying price tag attached, I was still operating with a fresh perspective on life gained at my 40th reunion last week back home in New York. Each of our lives contains some measure of disappointment, difficulty and trouble that we must face and deal with as best we can. How we do that is often greatly affected by our ability to keep life in perspective. The time spent with my fellow classmates revealed some stories that, in my sharing, might help each of
us to not look at life through too narrow of a lens:

* Richard Yaeger, probably my best friend in high school and the years that followed, has MS, Multiple Sclerosis, and is confined to a wheelchair. Despite having lost most of his muscle control, Richard smiled, laughed and reminisced with friends throughout the night and was one of the last to leave. He didn't have the strength to shake hands very well but his spirit was inspiring to all.

* Jeanette Sleight, a good friend's wife, was also in a wheel chair with MS but, rather than talking about that, she wanted to show off pics of her grandkids and talk about all that is going on in their lives. (rather proudly I might add!!)

* George Keegan, the fastest runner on our track team who went on to compete in college, is battling Alzheimers and the related symptoms but was able to joke about his memory problems and needing a ride to the reunion while we enjoyed the many stories from our high school days.

* Barb Knope was another who was suffering from MS but seemed so thankful for the medicines that, in her case, are keeping the disease in remission. Her own perspective was no doubt affected by being around other MS sufferers who are confined to wheelchairs.

* Jim Zimmerman is battling Parkinson's Disease but he was there with his wife Barb and you could only admire his positive attitude in light of the uncertainties that the future might hold for him.

In the difficulties, challenges and troubles we find ourselves in from time to time, there comes the opportunity to react with faith in a positive manner from a thankful heart, or to respond with complaining and a bad attitude because things aren't working out exactly the way we want them to.

Choose today to respond with a thankful heart and with thankful words for all the good in your life, for the family and friends you have been blessed with, and for a God who is faithful to His people, sometimes in ways they, unfortunately, cannot comprehend. I pray that today you will have a fresh perspective to carry with you wherever you go.

God Bless
Pastor Joe
Gateway Church